[sintarno]

I've been working in a large office for a long time and always wondered why I was so different from everybody else. I always wondered why people laughed at certain things and why I was the only one not understanding ... Always wondered why people got into little groups going for lunch and why those little clicks talking just to talk about this and that for no reason. Why was I the only one liking to be by myself and trying to understand how people could concentrate when there was so much noise around.
And also why was I the only one being extremely frustrated when for instance, something so obvious to me would be so complicated to all of my co-workers, and why people making such a big deal out of something so tiny small - and trying to explain to them my point of view would be impossible.

Last week I got some tests results and got my answer....... ASPIE !!

I scored in the very high above range + 99 percentile (considered a genius) for certain things and borderline retarded (I'm not kidding, lol) for things such as verbal reasonning - anything about talking / communicating.
Now I just scored this position in my office which allows me to use my brain and fix programming problems - HOWEVER - I need to attend meetings with people. When I think of my results, people who don't know me very well must really think I'm retarded, no? I'm slow in a conversation because I deeply think too much, but that leaves a bad impression and I know so. But there is nothing I can do about it... so here we go.

QUESTION: Does anybody have to deal with this kind of thing? If so, how do you cope?

[Omers]

I too have superior intelligence with areas of borderline mental handicap with Aspi. It is VERY hard for others to understand.

Try and make a script for as much of the meeting as you can. Try and figure out what kinds of * stupid * questions they are going to ask... have it all rehearsed in your head before the meeting. As you have more and more meetings you will pick up on the patterns of * stupid * and get better at being ready for them. The more ready you are for them the less likely you are to accidentally let out something that they would consider "rude". Plan for the stupid people as they are more likely to throw you off your game and have you make a social oops than the smart people are.
At lest that was how I survived in my longest job until they caught on and just started having me work with all the people with PhD's even though I only have a BA.

If there is someone in the office who seems to 'get you' you may want to have a talk with them and let them know whats going on. Then they can help you navigate the areas you scored lower in. I was fortunate in that the owner of the company I worked for seemed to get it better than most (we still had some problems). Anyway they learned to trust me when I said "yes, I can do this" or "nope, not my thing" because I understood my limitations better than anyone and didn't use them as an excuse.

We can be a HUGE asset to a company if they are smart enough to figure out how to work with us and the aspi rather than against it.

[sintarno]

Wow very helpful, Omers. Sincerely, thank you very much.